A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators wants to to raise the gasoline tax by 12 cents a gallon.Rick Bowmer, Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Gasoline and diesel taxes could go up by 6 cents next year, and another 6 cents in 2016, if a pair of U.S. senators can persuade Congress to go along with their idea.

The money would help repair highways and bridges that cities, states, contractors and advocacy groups say are in poor condition or crumbling.

Would you mind paying more in gas taxes, as Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee propose, if it made the roads better and safer?

Before you answer, consider a few things:

The federal government provides money for states to build and maintain roads and bridges through the Federal Highway Trust Fund. The fund already gets money from federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel ---18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents a gallon for diesel.

The fund is running low and is projected to run out this summer. The problem is two-fold: People started driving less during the economic downturn, and cars got increasingly better mileage.

That's good for wallets and the environment, but it meant less money from the tax. The purchasing power of the gas tax, according to Murphy and Corker, is 63 percent of what it was in 1993, when Congress last raised it.

The trust fund has not gone bust, but only because Congress has repeatedly taken money from general tax revenue to keep it afloat. In other words, taxpayers have subsidized the trust fund to the tune of $53 billion since 2008, says former Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. That has added to the country's deficits, adds Voinovich, a Republican who bucked some in his party when he served by pushing for a gas-tax hike.

Raising taxes of any kind is politically difficult, particularly for Republicans who run on promises to seek lower taxes and a leaner government.

Murphy and Corker say they would offset the higher gas taxes with tax relief in other forms. This is likely to attract competing ideas, but the senators said when announcing their plan this week that one idea is to "reduce taxes by at least the amount of revenue raised from the gas tax over the next decade."

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman said today that he would be concerned with anything that raised gasoline prices while they are already going up because of instability in Iraq. However, he said he would look at the Murphy-Corker proposal.

Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrrod Brown said that all funding options should be considered, calling it "critical that we address the shortfall in the highway trust fund to prevent delays of critical, job-creating infrastructure projects." Brown applauded Murphy and Corker "for contributing to the discussion of how we will pay for infrastructure investments," but added that he expects "a full debate about how we fund and invest in the infrastructure projects that create American jobs and promote economic development."

In addition to raising the gas tax by 12 cents over the course of two years, Murphy and Corker would index the gas tax to the rate of inflation. If inflation were to rise by, say, 3 percent, or likely more in some future years, the gas tax would rise, too.

Those who like this proposal include AAA, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association and a bipartisan group called Transportation for America.

Already opposing it is the conservative Club for Growth. The group's president, Chris Chocola, said in a statement, " Instead of standing up to the special interests who feast on the chronically bankrupt Highway Trust Fund year after year, Senator Corker and Senator Murphy have essentially decided that throwing more money into a black hole is a good path forward. It's not. Rather than perpetuate this failed system, Congress should devolve highway funding to the states and let them fund their own infrastructure needs."

We asked Voinovich, who retired from elected office at the end of 2010, what he thought of the Murphy-Corker idea. He reiterated what he sees as the need to do something to get through this year as well as a long-term solution. Corker and Murphy may be on a similar track, as Corker told reporters this week, "I know that we won't pass this in the next month. Our goal is to build support for this in the next six months."

Voinovich has discussed various ways of structuring this, but his bottom line remains what he said in an op-ed in Roll Call:

"Although several suggestions have been made to fund the Trust Fund, the only way to fund it robustly is to increase the motor fuel tax as President Reagan did in 1983, President George Bush did in 1990 and President Bill Clinton did in 1993."

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